Football clubs are deeply tied to the geography of their cities, but rarely do you see a club’s matchday programme actively used to design the city itself. Page 34 of the May 2013 edition features a fascinating full-page advertorial from real estate developer AM, titled “Samen iets moois bouwen in De Meeuwen!” (Building something beautiful together in De Meeuwen!).
The article is a direct appeal to the fans in the stadium. The developer was planning a new residential area in the De Meeuwen neighborhood, located strategically between the Winschoterdiep canal and the Europaplein access road. Instead of just building houses and hoping they would sell, the developers launched a massive survey, asking potential buyers exactly what they wanted in a home. “Buying a house is a big step… we offer buyers real freedom by talking to each other to come up with a good plan,” the text reads. Using the FC Groningen programme to reach a broad, locally invested demographic was a brilliant piece of participatory urban planning.
A Look into the Future
Reading this advertorial from the perspective of 2026 provides a jarring contrast regarding the Dutch housing market. In 2013, the Netherlands was just recovering from a financial crisis; developers had to actively court buyers, beg them to fill out surveys, and customize homes to secure a sale. Today, the country is in the grip of a historic housing shortage. The idea of a developer asking “what are your housing wishes?” feels almost utopian in an era where buyers queue for hours and overbid massively just to secure a standard apartment. The De Meeuwen project was successfully completed, but this page remains a fascinating artifact of a buyer’s market that has long since vanished.